Finding Our Way Into the Sun of Consciousness
CALCULATING AND INTERPRETING THE
LUNATION BIRTHDAY HEXAGRAM
As I shared in my introduction, Dane Rudhyar's book The Lunation Cycle, explains the synodic cycle of the Moon as a key to understanding the human psyche at a deeply archetypal level. In that book, he shows that by calculating the phase relationship between Sun and Moon, as viewed from Earth at the moment of a person’s birth, it is possible to determine for that person what he calls a "lunation birthday" — a birthday that reoccurs every 29.5 days.
As a result of my own discoveries introduced in the previous section under A Key To All Worlds, I realized that the lunation cycle has a direct correspondence to I Ching and that consequently, for every lunation birthday, there is a corresponding hexagram. I call it the lunation birthday hexagram (LBH).
The Lunation Birthday Hexagram (LBH) integrates Sun, Moon & Earth.
Experience has shown me that because the lunation birthday hexagram is specifically referenced to a person's moment of birth, and because it integrates Sun, Moon and Earth into a unified symbolic construct, it is uniquely effective in facilitating for that person, a tangible feeling of closure within the overarching synthesis of the Lightning Path.
In the following section, I will use the astrological birth chart of current US President Donald J. Trump to illustrate the complete procedure for calculation of a lunation birthday hexagram.
U.S President Donald J. Trump
Image source
STEP ONE: CALCULATE THE ANGULAR SEPARATION BETWEEN SUN & MOON AT BIRTH
The first step in determining a person’s lunation birthday is to cast an astrological chart (horoscope) for the moment of their birth. Chart calculations require both time and place of birth and can be done online for free at either www.astro.com or at www.astrotheme.com. (If an exact birth time is unavailable, simply use 12:00 noon on the day of birth.)
For the following calculation example, we shall use the birth chart of U.S president Donald J. Trump as supplied at www.astrotheme.com.
Natal horoscope for US President Donald J. Trump
Image source
From President Trump's natal horoscope we determine the exact angular separation (traveling Moonwise) between Sun and Moon at the time of his birth. One of the simplest and easiest ways to do this is to first convert both placements to absolute longitude (AL). This can be done by using an online table at http://www.skyscript.co.uk/ablong.html. From that table, a portion of which is shown below, we see that President Trump’s Sun at Gemini 22 deg. 56 min corresponds to Absolute Longitude of 82 deg 56 min. His Moon at Sagittarius 21 deg.12 min. corresponds to AL 261 deg 12 min.
Sun …………………….Moon
Next, we convert each AL position to its decimal equivalent by dividing the minutes portion of each position by 60:
AL Moon = 261 deg 12 min = 261.2 deg.
AL Sun = 82 deg 56 min = 82.93 deg.
Finally, we subtract the Sun position from the Moon position to arrive at the phase angle between Sun and Moon: (261.2 minus 82.93) = 178.27 deg.
STEP TWO: CALCULATE THE LUNATION BIRTHDAY HEXAGRAM
In this step, we first apply a transposition factor which places the Sun/Moon angle into the context of the I Ching hexagram wheel. We do this by simply multiplying the natal phase angle between Sun and Moon (as decimal) by 1.066:
178.2 deg. X 1.066 lines/ degree = 189.96 lines.
Next, in order to locate the exact hexagram aligned with this Sun/Moon angle, we divide the transposed number (189.96) by 6:
189.96 lines divided by 6 = No. of completed hexagrams since New Moon = 31.66
This number tells us that President Trump was born in a Moon phase that corresponds to the 32nd hexagram in the complete series of 64. The remaining decimal associated with this number indicates a specific "ruling line" within that hexagram and is determined by multiplying the ruling line decimal by 6 and rounding up to the next whole number:
.66 X 6 = 3.96 or line 4.
As shown in the following mandala, the 32nd hexagram in the complete sequence, starting at New Moon, corresponds to hexagram 24: RETURN, located just prior to the Full Moon portion of the lunation cycle.
Hexagram 24: RETURN
Outer numbers reveal chronological sequence, beginning at Hexagram 1.
Inner numbers indicate hexagram number (1 - 64).
Although this section is devoted to simple calculation of President Trump's LBH, I include the following image which artistically evokes the kind of presence we might anticipate from someone aligned at birth with this hexagram, one that translates as "Thunder Within the Earth."
HEXAGRAM 24 - Thunder Within The Earth
Artistic interpretation of Hexagram 24
INTERPRETING THE LUNATION BIRTHDAY HEXAGRAM
As an example of the interpretation of a lunation birthday hexagram, we now turn to one of the Founding Fathers of the American nation, Benjamin Franklin. My reason for using Franklin as an example is because it appears that some of his mathematical and scientific contemplations brought him into resonance with the same celestial dynamics that had caught my attention. This first became apparent to me in 1986 when I discovered the following Franklin illustration in the Jose' Arguelles book Earth Ascending :
Portion of Ben Franklin's Descriptive Drawing Showing Aurora Borealis
Image source: Earth Ascending p.145
Shown in the Franklin image is a portion of the Earth and its auroras. Below them is shown an alignment of Sun and Moon that is very reminiscent of the I Ching Sun/Moon ideogram spoken of earlier and shown again, below.
I Ching ideogram depicting Sun over Moon
The Franklin image also shows what appears to be a gravitationally sensitive device pointing to a segmented semi-circle, which is itself evocative of the complete series of I Ching hexagrams shown in the following illustration. In that illustration, Franklin's image is included as a visual indicator of the mathematical calculations (detailed in step 2 above) used to derive the lunation birthday hexagram:
Lunation Phase/Hexagram Wheel
The lunation birthday symbolizes a person's basic vitality, as seen through an astrological lens. From the viewpoint of the Lightning Path, the hexagram derived for that birthday constitutes a fundamental component of what is ultimately an expansive spiritual birthright.
Knowing full well that Ben Franklin has been dead for hundreds of years, let us nonetheless take a retrospective and intuitive journey into the long and accomplished life of this illustrious historical figure who, we will assume, was closely aligned with his own basic nature.
By examining Franklin's life in relation to his lunation birthday hexagram, I intend to show you by example, what it is like to work with a LBH in an interpretive way. You will see just how quickly a vast network of relevant information can appear once you begin to follow the subtle, astrological/mathematical linkages constellated by the lunation birthday hexagram.
The lunation birthday integrates Sun, Moon and Earth into a single psycho-spiritual entity and by relating that entity to the hexagrams of the I Ching, we align it with a body of ancient wisdom specific to the person for whom the lunation birthday is determined. So, let us become familiar with what I have determined to be Ben Franklin's lunation birthday hexagram: Hexagram 26 - Taming Power of the Great. (A detailed calculation of Franklin's lunation birthday hexagram is included in the NOTES section below, as are links to other LBH calculation examples.)
There are many, many books and websites devoted to the I Ching and fortunately, at James DeKorne's Gnostic I Ching we find a particularly comprehensive collection of quotes from various versions of I Ching. On his site, DeKorne calls Hexagram 26 — Controlled Power and he shares the following list of alternative titles for this hexagram:
The Taming Power of the Great, The Great Nourisher, Taming the Great Powers, Great Accumulating, Great Accumulation, Great Storage, Nurturance of the Great, Great Buildup, Restraint of the Great, Restraint by the Strong, Potential Energy, The Great Taming Force, Energy Under Control, Power Restrained, Sublimation, Latent Power
DeKorne goes on to list 9 different versions of what, in I Ching parlance, is called "The Judgement". Of those nine versions, let us examine the very popular Wilhelm/Baynes edition:
The Taming Power of the Great. Perseverance furthers. Not eating at home brings good fortune. It furthers one to cross the great water.
In relating this statement to Franklin's life, I note that, as the first official emissary to Europe of the American nation, he carried across the great water (the Atlantic ocean), a mantle of power bestowed upon him by a vast New World in the making!
In a multitude of selfless acts of public service to the newly emerging nation of which he was a founder, Franklin was often compelled to leave both family and friends for extended periods of time in order to engage directly with a vast public. Both at home and abroad, "not eating at home" was normative for him.
Much of Franklin's personal life and inner thoughts are widely known through a plethora of books and documents, most notable of which is his famous Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. As the irrepressible communicator that he was, Franklin was also recognized for the extensive selection of aphorisms and proverbs he distributed for 25 years through a publication called Poor Richard's Almanack. In 1757, he cleverly wove together a selection of many of these aphorisms and published them as The Way to Wealth which became very popular in both America and England.
A nineteenth-century print based on Poor Richard's Almanack, showing Franklin
surrounded by twenty-four illustrations of many of his best-known sayings.
With divinatory knowledge of Franklin's inherent potential for gregarious and virtuous character, let us turn once again to the Gnostic I Ching, where we find the following Wilhelm/Baynes commentary regarding the central image of the hexagram aligned with his lunation birthday:
Had I been given the opportunity to sit with Ben Franklin and to share with him this astrologically-divined birthright image, he would surely have recognized it as confirmation of his own sense of self. For, as we have already seen, not only did he "acquaint himself with many sayings of antiquity and many deeds of the past," he saw to it that his own insights were passed on to succeeding generations, as is evidenced in the very first paragraph of his famous autobiography:Heaven within the mountain: the image of the Taming Power of the Great. Thus the superior man acquaints himself with many sayings of antiquity and many deeds of the past, in order to strengthen his character thereby.
EAR SON: I have ever had pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of my ancestors. You may remember the inquiries I made among the remains of my relations when you were with me in England, and the journey I undertook for that purpose. Imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life, many of which you are yet unacquainted with, and expecting the enjoyment of a week's uninterrupted leisure in my present country retirement, I sit down to write them for you. To which I have besides some other inducements. Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of, which with the blessing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to be imitated.
Ben Franklin and son William
Image source
Ben Franklin had only two years of formal education but through decades of self-motivated study and virtuous conduct guided by his survey of ancestral wisdom, he became an accomplished diplomat, scientist, inventor and writer. Perhaps best known as one of the founding fathers of the USA, he helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Co-founding father and second president of the United States, John Adams, considered by some to be Franklin's most challenging colleague, nonetheless praised Franklin's reputation as "more universal than that of Leibnitz or Newton, Frederick or Voltaire; and his character more esteemed and beloved than all of them."
Earlier we determined what is called the controlling line within Franklin's lunation birthday hexagram (26). We look now to The Astrology of I Ching which lends a prognostic approach to its interpretations. I find this version of I Ching particularly well-suited to describing the basic nature of the man about whom we are learning:
Line 5: A gelded boar's tusks. Good fortune. As one of the rulers of this hexagram, in a ruling position, this line symbolizes leaders among men, who need to repress and restrain evil. A"gelded boar's tusks" represents that which needs to be restrained and shows the method by which it can be done. A wild boar is very dangerous and uses its tusks to harm others. Once a boar is gelded, it no longer cares to use its tusks. Therefore 'gelding' evil is a good way to restrain and eradicate it, rather than trying to combat it directly. Good, wise, steadfast, and strong men, with courage and vitality, are required to carry out such matters.
Over the course of the four seasons of his long and illustrious life, a life which coincided closely with the 84 year orbit of Uranus around the Sun, Benjamin Franklin surely fulfilled the potential evoked by what The Astrology of I Ching portends for him, as is evidenced in this partial listing from Masonicdictionary.com of some of his achievements :Most auspicious: He will be highly talented, both personally and professionally , with innate qualities of leadership. He will be assigned to positions involving the establishing of policies, and controlling or influencing large numbers of people. He will make positive contributions within his sphere of influence, and will have a good and rewarding life.
His enterprising career was industrious and capable in the extreme, a record not readily condensed in a brief article. He taught himself the use of several languages, made his influence multiplied by the printing press, his witty Almanacs brightly written for a quarter of a century averaged a sale of 10,000 copies annually. Postmaster in 1737, he also with twenty-three other citizens in 1749 founded an academy that became the University of Pennsylvania, a promoter of the American Philosophical Society, the organizer of the Junto, a compact debating club somehow curiously resembling in its practices the same exchange of thought characterizing many past and present French Lodges to which Franklin may easily have contributed some influence if only by example.
Active in forming the first police force in the Colonies, starting the fire department, the militia, improving street paving, bettering the street lighting, introducing hospital service, and so forth, it has truly been said of him that he gave in his day the impulse to nearly every project for the welfare of his city. A member of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, for almost twenty years in joint charge of the mails in the Colonies, delegated to the Albany Convention where he submitted a plan for colonial union, he was later entrusted with the raising of troops and the building of forts in the wilderness against the Indians. Recalled from this western responsibility, he was sent eastward, to England, as the agent of the protesting Colonies.
Honored by the freedom of the city of Edinburgh, made a Doctor of Laws by the University of Saint Andrews, Doctor of Civil Law by Oxford, he was already a Master of Arts at Harvard, at Yale, and at the College of William and Mary. Returning to handle successfully public service at home, he was once more employed abroad to represent the Colonies at a Committee of the English Parliament, and was back in Philadelphia in 1775.
A delegate to the Continental Congress, Post-Master General, on the Commission to Canada, one of the five to prepare the Declaration of Independence, President of the Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, chosen by Congress one of three to discuss terms of peace with Admiral Howe in 1776, Commissioner to France.
Further illustration of Franklin's achievements is provided by historian Andrew Connally:
Inventions/Improvements
Hand Swim Flippers (1720)
1st US Copperplate Press (’27)
Pennsylvanian Stove (1741)
US Political Cartoons (’47/’54)
Electric Storage Battery (1749)
Lightning Rod (1751)
Flexible Urinary Catheter (’52)
4-Paned Street Lamp (1756)
Phila. Streets Paved (1756)
24-Hr., 3-Wheeled Clock (’57)
Glass Armonica (1762)
Gulf Stream (1st named & described correctly, 1769)
Smokeless Coal Stove (1771)
Postal Odometer (1775)
Bifocals (1784)
Daylight Saving Time (1784)
Long Arm, Library Chair & Fanning Rocking Chair (’86)
Improved Copy Machine (’86)
Major Documents
Albany Plan of Union (1754)
Articles of Confederation (’75)
Decl. of Independence (1776)
PA’s 1st Constitution (1776)
Treaty of Paris (1781-1783)
US Constitution (1787)
Institutions Co-Founded
The Junto (1727)
Library Company (1731)
Union Fire Co. (1st in US, ’36)
Amer. Philosophical Soc. (’43)
PA Hospital (1st public hospital in US, 1751)
Academy of PA (now, University of PA, 1751)
Phila. Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire (oldest extant in US, ’52)
PA Militia (now, PA National Guard, 1764)
Phila. Soc. for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons (’87)
Honors, Honorary Degrees
Copley Medal, Royal Society (London, 1753)
M.A.’s, Harvard & Yale (1753)
Fellow, Royal Society (London, 1756)
M.A., Wm & Mary (1756)
Ph.D, Univ. of St. Andrews (Scotland, 1759)
D.Civ.Law, Oxford (1762)
Member, Royal Academy of Sciences (Paris, 1772)
Member, Royal Academy of History (Madrid, 1784)
Member, Imperial Academy of Sciences & Arts (St. Petersburg, 1789)
Offices Held
Clerk, PA Assembly (1736-1751)
Deputy Postmaster-Gen’l of Philadelphia (1737-1753)
Member, Phila. City Council (1748-1751)
Member, PA Assembly (1751-1764)
Deputy Postmaster-General of (British) North America (1753-1756)
PA Delegate to Albany Congress (1754)
Co-Postmaster Gen’l of (Br.) North America (1756-1774)
Lobbyist for PA, GA, NJ. MA w/ British Gov’t (1757-1774)
Speaker, PA Assembly (1763)
Postmaster-General of the United Colonies (1775-1776)
PA Delegate: 2nd Continental Congress (1775-1776)
US Ambassador to France (1776-1785, official in 1778)
President of PA Executive Council (now, Governor of Pennsylvania, 1785-1788)
PA Delegate: Constitutional Convention (1787)
President of Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage (1788-1790)
FRANKLIN'S LIGHTNING PATH RESONANCES
Earlier, I mentioned that at least one of Franklin's scientific and mathematical illustrations indicated a direct resonance with essential mathematical calculations associated with the Lightning Path synthesis, particularly with calculation of the lunation birthday hexagram. That illustration was only partial. The complete image is repeated below:
Franklin's depiction of Earth and its auroras.
Image source: Earth Ascending p.145
There is yet another compelling resonance between Franklin and the Lightning Path, as is made apparent through Franklin's fascination with the mathematical phenomenon known as magic squares.
Essentially, a magic square is an N x N matrix of numbers in which every row and column add up to the same number. Franklin contrived numerous magic squares, but the one most pertinent to our study is one based on 64, the number of hexagrams in the I Ching and shown in the following illustration. Perhaps even more remarkably, each row and column add up to 260 (13x20), the number most commonly associated with the Mayan Tzolkin, vital component of the Lightning Path!
In his youth, Benjamin Franklin constructed the above
8×8 magic square having magic constant 260.
ADDITIONAL BEN FRANKLIN INFORMATION
Quotations
Franklin quotation generator here.
Virtues To Live By
Franklin is noted to have once created a list of 13 virtues to live by:
- temperance
- silence
- order
- resolution
- frugality
- industry
- sincerity
- justice
- moderation
- cleanliness
- tranquility
- chastity
- humility
84 Year Orbit of Uranus Around the Sun
NOTES
1) SUMMARIZED CALCULATION PROCEDURE FOR DETERMINATION OF A LUNATION BIRTHDAY HEXAGRAM
2) CALCULATION SUMMARY OF BEN FRANKLIN'S LUNATION BIRTHDAY HEXAGRAM
Note: For this calculation, I am using the same birth data for Franklin as that used at Astrotheme.com.
Sun at Capricorn 27 deg 12 min.
Moon at Pisces 5 deg 19 min.
Angle separating Sun & Moon = 38.13 deg.
(a) To translate degrees of angular separation between Sun and Moon at birth (the lunation phase angle) into elapsed lines of successive hexagrams since New Moon, apply the transposition factor 1 deg. = 1.066 lines. (We arrive at this factor by multiplying 64 hexagrams x 6 lines per hexagram to get 384 lines in the whole series. 384 lines, divided by 360 degrees, yields 1.066 lines per degree.) Thus, the angle between Sun and Moon at Franklin's birth was 38.13 degrees. Multiplying this number by our transposition factor of 1.066 lines / deg. gives us 40.65 elapsed lines since New Moon.
(b) To now translate elapsed lines into hexagrams, we simply divide 40.65 by 6, giving us the number 6.78. This implies that 6 hexagrams have completely elapsed and that the phase angle has entered three quarters of the way into the seventh hexagram in the series which, according to the above Lunation Phase Hexagram Wheel, is hexagram 26: The Taming Power of the Great.
(c) Finally, the exact decimal remaining in our calculation above allows us to calculate the "ruling line" within Franklin's lunation birthday hexagram and to do so we simply multiply the decimal remainder of .78 by 6 (number of lines in a complete hexagram). This brings us to 4.68, which, when we round up to the next whole number, brings us to line 5 of hexagram 26.
Note: Another example (based on Donald Trump) of the calculation procedure used above is located here. An additional LBH interpretation using my own birth data is located here.
3) ASTRONOMY OF THE LIGHTNING PATH
The Lightning Path is based on the actual astronomy of the planet Uranus itself, as revealed in the following calculation summary:
1 synodic cycle of the Moon (1 lunation cycle) = 29 days 12 hr. 44min = 29. 53 days
1 Luna-Tzolkin round (13x20 = 260 lunation cycles) = 260 x 29.53 = 7677.8 days
4 Luna-Tzolkin rounds = 7677.8 x 4 = 30,711.2 days = 84.08 yr.
1 Orbital Period (Year) of Uranus = 84.01 Years* (30,685.4 Days)
* The approximation of 365.256 days per year is used.
Simply put, the 21 years it takes to pass through one Luna-Tzolkin round represents one Uranian "season" --- one quarter of the time it takes for Uranus to orbit the Sun. In other words, four Luna-Tzolkin rounds (1040 lunations) = 84 Earth years = one Uranian year.
